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Drilling Under the Sea
prof_peabody writes "The IODP (Intergrated Ocean Drilling Program) is about to get rolling in a couple of days. If you live in one of these countries then your tax dollars have contributed to the construction of the giant drillship Chikyu, which was launched a little while back (project timeline). The American contigent website is loaded with info and obligatory acronyms. The first leg of the IODP will investigate how water flows through rock formations beneath the seafloor during an eight-week expedition this summer to the eastern flank of the Juan de Fuca Ridge off the coast of British Columbia. Some of you geeks with beards may remember the DSDP (Deep Sea Drilling Project) or the recently completed ODP (Ocean Drilling Program). The real advance in the new program that will cost well over a billion dollars is the IODP riser drill ship that 'will provide a way to drill into continental margins where oil and gas deposits can cause drilling safety concerns and into regions with thick sediment sections, fault zones, and unstable formations.' A good overview of the IODP can be found here, and the necessary references to Megalodon and none other than The Core."
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Why isn't a robotic drilling submarine used ? It could operate in any depths and the drilling operation wouldn't depend on local weather condition.
As a canadian i like to watch canadian TV. in the canadian TV they talk a lot about kyoto protocol. Alberta the biggest producer of oil in the country is 100% against kyoto because it will hurt their industry. problem is that a lot of people from the two bigger provinces, ontario and quebec, want to support kyto. if kyto pass federal government will make oil in canada not as competive as oil from other parts in the world.
:(.
anyways, if you didn't remember, i did, 2002 gas prices were so damn expensive that i couldn't afford to drive to work. i had to ride my bike
opec, Saudi Arabia, that year decided to decrease output of oil and thanks to them i lost 50 pounds.
more data
you should check that out. it says the top oil producer was for 2003 saudia arabia at 9.95 million barrels a day.
i also got a blog and i did some research about some of the reasons why america would want to go to war with iraq [blog]
I think it's great that we do all this drilling and practicing with submarines. After all if we're drilling up even more oil, we'd better get used to the under sea life.
Me being a Dutchman 2, I can honoustly say you're giving 'us' too much credit. Pretty much the only thing the dutch have an unique knowledge of is the battle vs. the sea. Most parts of Holland are about 16 metres under sea level, which can cause a mighty flood (like the one in 1953) if the country is not protected well enough.
The 'stormvloedkering' (dutch name of huge project to protect holland from the water) is still considered to be any incredible piece of technology/engineering even tody, even though it was build in the late 50's.
Tunnels & bridges however are more scrares in the Netherlands and I cannot imagine that we have a big advantage over countries like Norway, Canada and maybe the US that have build huge structures of that kind.
One of the most inspiring phrases from the time Holland struggled with the sea is: 'Luctor et Emergo' (Ik worstel en kom boven / I struggle and emerge)
Yes, the Abyss was a better movie...but even that had problems.
1. In real life, wouldn't you really think that it was a russian or other type of sub down there? The one Seal said it's probably a Russian sub and everyone jumps all over him "you're crazy! Obviously it's from outer-space! you're insane!". Well, I'm not suffering from HPNS up here on land and even I wouldn't think of something more down-to-Earth.
2. The part where the water tentacle is interacting with the characters, mimicing what they're doing. So when Lindsey poked her finger into the forehead of the tentacle, shouldn't it also have poked a finger into the her forehead also? Just a thought...
3. At that depth and pressure, I thought a mixture of helium and oxygen was more the norm...though I don't remember the science behind it. But I guess they didn't want everyone talking like Mickey Mouse, though it may have been more entertaining.
4. With Bud using the liquid breathing contraption, wouldn't he still implode going that deep? I mean, the liquid inside the suit is still at a pressure...so wouldn't you still have to equalize the pressure the deeper you go? How would that be done, taking in seawater? Also, aren't there pockets of air running through the body other than the lungs...wouldn't even one be subject to all that pressure? AND if he equalized at the pressure of 3 miles down, wouldnt he have to decompress on the way back up?
Anyway, just nitpicking...still far and away better than that joke of a movie "The Core"
"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it." - John Lennon.
That doesn't seem to be the case. This article on Slate argues that we are unlikely to achieve "energy independence" from the Middle East, and even if we do, OPEC will have plenty of new custom from China and other emerging economies.
It's not impossible, but it's kind of unlikely.
The problem isn't that we can't get other kinds of energy to run a car, it's that the market demand isn't there. It really has nothing to do with the oil industry stopping us from using something different: I could, right now, use 100% vegetable oil-driven "diesel", and so on.
The fact is, getting millions of people to change their desires is the biggest hurdle.
In the meantime, the oil industry tries to keep up with the demand of the populace. If this undersea drilling rig can open up a new frontier, who knows what might be discovered alongside it.
It occurs to me that Shell and the gang all employ many environmental scientists, etc, to research all kinds of good stuff. This might provide one more avenue for research; always a good thing.
Why?! Why?! Why?!
Why must we deplete more of the Earth's precious resources like this? Look, we know we're going to run out of oil sooner or later. That's a certainty. Why don't we just accept that now and get working on the alternatives, so we're actually ready for the day when the oil does run out?
The first phase should be to develop a "drop-in" replacement for petroleum fuels, manufactured from plants and waste products, and usable in existing engines with little to no alteration. The priority would be for public transport and emergency vehicles first, then private delivery vehicles, then private cars. Once such fuels are produced in sufficient quantities, petroleum exploration can be discontinued altogether, and we can add a statement to our foreign policy that we will not lend our support to any attempt on the part of a petroleum-consuming nation to wage war, if it is believed that the primary object of that war is to secure further supplies of petroleum.
The next phase will be to develop, in synergy, a range of fuels and engines which sacrifice backward-compatibility for greater efficiency. We then stop making the petroleum-compatible engines, and just produce enough "old skool" fuels to run all remaining petroleum-compatible engines into the ground.
All this can best be done under the framework of a nationalised industry (therefore no petty bickering, IP disputes, anti-competitive practices &c. as are so common in the private sector. All publicly-funded research would be licenced on a non-discriminatory basis so that private companies could enter a competitive market when the technology became established). We should pay for the replacement of petroleum by means of a tax on the use of petroleum -- and non-fossil fuels must be conspicuously exempt from such tax.
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
Here is a good link for information about the drilling in the Gulf Of Mexico (GOM). It comes from the MMS which is the regulatory body that oversees drilling and production from federal waters in the United States. The pacific region has had all drilling suspended in the recent years if my memory serves me correctly. They do not say it on the website, but, the information in the pacific manager's message is substantially less information packed than the GOM director's message.
The air-pressure/liquid pressure differential wouldn't have been that great. Please remember that the abode has a moon-pool. It is only the extra pressure as the diver goes down the trench to warn the aliens that counts.
Last thing is that the diver is not using sea-water. I seem to remember it is some kind of perfluoro-carbon. Certainly it has been used for premature-babies with success, but more pertinently for animals to simulate deep dives (to 1000 metres from sea-level and back). The ascent was much faster than normal but there were no signs of decompression sickness. The mouse did die later for other reasons which is why nobody is diving with it now.
See my journal, I write things there
...but the IODP is not about the exploration for hydrocarbons. Its about planetary research. One of the bonuses of this new vessel is that it can better withstand the elements of ACCIDENTALLY drilling into gas reservoirs making it better suited for exploration drilling on ocean slopes. This is definitely NOT about oil and gas. You mods should RTFA before marking up completely off topic comments about US energy consumption and oil as interesting and insightful.
NMG
Good point, but if liquids were as compressible as a gas, then hydraulics woudn't work so well!
Liquids can be compressed just fine. Simply throw them into a neutron star or black hole.
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